VanDerveer picks up 800th victory

Stanford routs San Francisco, 100-45, for landmark win

SAN FRANCISCO -- Stanford's Tara VanDerveer became the sixth women's coach to reach the elite 800 wins mark Wednesday night, doing so in her third try as the eighth-ranked Cardinal routed San Francisco, 100-45, and former Stanford stars turned coaches Jennifer Azzi and Katy Steding.

Kayla Pedersen scored her team's first eight points of the second half on the way to 16 and grabbed a career-high 20 rebounds to lead Stanford (7-2), which was coming off losses last Thursday at No. 16 DePaul and then at fifth-ranked Tennessee on Sunday.

VanDerveer is 800-197 in 32 seasons as a head coach, 25 of those years at Stanford -- where she is 648-146. Azzi embraced the Hall of Fame coach after the final buzzer sounded, then fans and players held up 800 signs reading "Congratulations Tara." Azzi and Steding presented VanDerveer with flowers and the game ball in a ceremony at midcourt.

"Eight hundred's a lot of games," VanDerveer said. "It's a little ironic with Jennifer and Katy. It's apropos it's with them. Jennifer's taken part in a lot of these wins. I'm just a little bit blown away about Jennifer and Katy being here and the large number."

VanDerveer joins fellow 800-game winners Pat Summitt of Tennesse, former Texas coach Jody Conradt, Rutgers' C. Vivian Stringer, Sylvia Hatchell of North Carolina and Barbara Stevens -- who won her 800th just this past Sunday for Division II Bentley University in Massachusetts.

VanDerveer beat a pair of familiar faces to reach the milestone, facing first-year USF head coach and Hall of Famer Azzi and her associate head coach, Steding. The two women were part of Stanford's first NCAA title in 1990 and on the VanDerveer-coached 1996 Olympic team that won gold in Atlanta.

Nnemkadi Ogwumike, Joslyn Tinkle and Sara James all scored 14 points for Stanford, which held the Dons to 24.3 percent shooting. The Cardinal played without starting freshman forward Chiney Ogwumike, who turned her left ankle during the morning shootaround.

Azzi, the Pac-10 player of the year in that 32-1 title run in '90, and Steding received a rousing ovation from the Stanford section when introduced. The coaches from both sides chatted before tipoff and planned to catch up over dinner afterward.

Azzi didn't schedule this game, which was on the calendar before she was hired in April to take over the struggling Dons program. Her team is 2-10 -- eight of those defeats blowouts -- and lost its seventh consecutive game. USF dropped its 15th in a row against Stanford in the series dating to Dec. 15, 1984.

VanDerveer's Cardinal, who have reached the Final Four the past three seasons, dropped five spots from third in this week's rankings after the two losses.

After USF pulled within 23-21 on Vania Singleterry's 3-pointer at the 8:16 mark of the first half, Stanford answered with a 25-0 run the rest of the way in which James scored eight points and Ogwumike seven in a row. The Cardinal led 48-21 at the break.

Stanford plays No. 4 Xavier on Tuesday afternoon at Maples Pavilion, several hours before top-ranked Connecticut goes for its 90th consecutive victory at Pacific in nearby Stockton. Then, the Huskies visit Stanford on Dec. 30 in a highly anticipated rematch of last season's national title game won 53-47 by UConn after Stanford led 20-12 at halftime.

The Cardinal are the last team to beat the Huskies, in the 2008 national semifinals in Tampa, Fla.

Nobody expected the overmatched Dons to stay with Stanford for long. Azzi said beforehand she just hoped her players gained some valuable experience playing against a top program in the country, but they hung tough early.

Stanford is 21-9 all time against San Francisco, which finished seventh in the eight-team West Coast Conference the past four seasons and went 5-27 overall and 1-13 in WCC play last season.

Former major league pitcher Vida Blue sat in the front row. Elementary students from the Oakland school where he volunteers sang the national anthem.